10/13 Alexis Gideon Video Opera

Alexis Gideon

Video Musics II: Sun Wu-Kong

A Video Opera

Wednesday October 13th

SFAI Lounge

Admission is FREE!

A one-hour multimedia video opera based on the 16th-century Chinese novel The Journey to the West, Video Musics II joins the brightest lights of contemporary animation (Becca Taylor (Punk Planet, Arthur); Cynthia Star (Coraline, Moral Orel, Robot Chicken); Ezra Claytan Daniels (The Changers and Black Violet)) with the most promising talents of contemporary music (Rachel Blumberg (M Ward, Arch Cape); Cory Gray (Norfolk & Western, Carcrashlander); Shelley Short (Hush)) to create an aural and visual universe that gleefully transcends both media. Is it film or music, high art or pop? Gideon’s work would fit snugly at either the Whitney Biennial or SXSW, which is to say it cannot be contained, really, by either venue. Marked throughout by the ambition, commitment to detail, and refusal to settle that have earned Gideon a cult following on both sides of the pond.

Formerly of the Chicago duo Princess , Alexis Gideon has extensive experience as both a musician and producer. He has toured nationally with Dan Deacon and Shelley Short as well as played with Barr , Marnie Stern , Panther , Parts and Labor , Zs , People , Matt and Kim and many, many others. He has produced records (and provided guitar instrumentation) for Shelley Short (Hush) and White Hinterland (Dead Oceans). He has played guitar for Carcrashlander (Parks and Records).

What people are saying about Gideon:

“Visually, Gideon stretches the silly putty of any preconceived art notions and melds, marries and mashes charcoal sketches, paintings, Claymation, animation, flip-book drawings and video footage of forests into a kaleidescopic, psycho-delic merry-go-round. It is the ultimate adult cartoon.”

Sara Moskovitz, Willamette Week

“Aided only by a lonely xylophone and some modestly overdriven guitar, Gideon’s live show is the man himself adroitly matching his completely DIY animations word for word as they are projected above him. He slurs and drawls his words in a style that’s somewhere between Memphis, Houston and Atlanta, often punctuated by rapidfire triplets.”

Jeff Tobias, Flagpole

“Eccentrics like Animal Collective and Beck come to mind when spinning Gideon, who loops beats, warps guitars, and creates a carnival of schizophrenic sound morphing from dreamy folk to dancehall fodder.”

SPIN

“A handsome Frankenstein’s monster, this one slips with alarming ease between clattering, percussive, no-wave noise breaks; unironic twang; arty, Busdriver -paced rhymes; and deep, Calvin Johnson -styled country croons. At the very least, Gideon will find himself with a cult–whether they’re dancing or swaying.”